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[Sensei]

So, I haven't actually played this game before. I think I may start today. It comes up in conversation every once in a while on these here Bay 12 forums, yet there's never been a real proper thread for it.

So, about Oolite:

Oolite is inspired by the 8-bit classic Elite, and many aspects of gameplay will be familiar to players of that game. In the tradition of open-world games, there's no overall story: you can be a millionaire trader, a veteran combateer, a feared pirate, a lonely miner, a notorious smuggler, or all of them, or something else entirely, based on your own actions.

I think their page sums it up better than I could. Anyway, this is the original open world space flying/fighting/trading game, and if you've played/heard about any of the X-series, Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen, or whatever else that boasts about recapturing classic space games, Elite is the game they're talking about, and Oolite is basically just a direct remake of Elite for modern operating systems. It also boasts easy modding and has a big list of player-made "Expansion packs."

So, who has played this before? Any tips for a starter? In particular, I was wondering if there was a list of expansion packs you guys might recommend for first-time play. Anyhow, commence discussion of Oolite, Elite, and how much better PC gaming was back when games used joysticks. I'm brushing the dust off of mine right now...

[TripJack]

Neat. I've never tried the original Elite, anyone know how it compares with the sequel Frontier? I know 1 has intertia-less physics but that's about it.

[Robsoie]

Elite 1 had no newtonian physics, it was more arcade in term of space flight and Oolite follow on this way.

A trick about the controls.
By default Oolite use the same control method as the old Elite 1 on PC, it was all about rolling on your self to change direction, as if the ship was lacking left/right reactors. When not used to this, it made space combat a lot harder if you weren't using a joystick.

Fortunately if you don't have a joystick (as the rolling method is a pain on keyboards) Oolite has another control method available with a more classic mouse+keyboard combo (the Archimedes version of Elite 1 had it too, it was the best version of Elite 1 anyways with lots of things the PC version didn't had).

To enable it, ingame press CTRL+SHIFT+M (CTRL + SHIFT + , on non-qwerty keyboards), but note that it use inverted up/down like a plane.
(there another method with SHIFT+M if you want to try too, it's the "roll" system but with the mouse)

But for reason i'm not sure about, sadly it's only working if you play in fullscreen (press F12).

[Aseaheru]

Awww, no sane physics? Anyone know if there is a mod that does include them?

[Robsoie]

I doubt it , as it sounds so much work that should be made in the engine itself.
It's better to play Pioneer or FFED3DAJ for this.

(edit changed link to FFED3D/AJ , more recent than FFED3D alone)

[Aseaheru]

Ooh, thats nice. Thanks.

[Robsoie]

FFED3D/AJ is more recent than latest version of FFED3D , it fixes lots of things for it, changed the link to it.

[Sensei]

So nobody really has much experience to talk about with this game?

GUESS AH'M GOIN' IN BLIND!

[Zireael]

Contrary to what was posted above, yaw is in. The mouse control does indeed work only with fullscreen for some arcane SDL reasons.

The best way to play the game is to install a few OXZs from the Manager - personally, I have a long list of those considered indispensable (Random Hits, Comms, Famous Planets, BGS)

[Sensei]

personally, I have a long list of those considered indispensable (Random Hits, Comms, Famous Planets, BGS)

Do you have a full list? Would you recommend starting with those?